Taxi Driver Online

we had ariuga and we still have auriga yet they cant tranfer data.

oh one another thing.
one of the lads dropped off near the Pier.
the office called him and asked wehre he was.
when he asked why they said according to the evocab system
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he was half a mile out in the sea.

Well it wont until to you take it to one of the thousands of places that can change it for a tenner.

It would appear they can all do it, but the boffins at Auriga can't.

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IDFIMH

Scott

Sorry, No I don't work for Auriga and I had you confused for another Scott who also likes his beer!

The problems being discussed here are just teething problems that many companies find with new installs. I'm sure the Auriga guys will sort them out for you and you'll all end up happy chappies!

Bill

You might well be right Bill, and in time the likes of Mr Cgull will stop being a guinea pig. But what those that designed this system haven't quite grasped is the issue of sending cars to places that have been banned.

Would your firm deal with customers that have ripped you off? Would you accept such a pathetic excuse like the data wont transfer?

If a time arises when a data firm ever cares about the drivers at the same level as the drivers themselves, then I might have a better opinion of them. But this Evocab data issue just proves that as long as they can get a sale, often from an operator who doesn't know one end of a computer from the other, then it doesn't really seem to matter if a few drivers are put at risk.

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IDFIMH

Sussex

I hear what you’re saying and do understand your concerns. I can’t speak for Auriga of course but I guess that they work pretty much the same as we do. We would try to copy across as much information from an existing database as possible to speed up the setup process for the customer and of course to make it easier for ourselves. Unfortunately, some older database types are a nightmare and also the data is very often stored in odd formats making it virtually impossible to transfer.

I think one of the great misconceptions in our business is that we’re all perceived as huge multinational companies like Microsoft with hundreds of software engineers working to develop your system. The reality is that most companies, my own included, don’t have much more than two or three key people doing this type of work, and again I can’t speak for Auriga but I doubt that they’re much different. So comparison with the likes of O2 and Orange is a bit like comparing my weekend fishing activities with the catch of captain BirdsEye.

I agree though, there are some people that shouldn’t be in the taxi business because they really don’t care about the implications of their actions on the companies they supply to. I’m not one of these and I honestly don’t believe for one moment that Auriga are either. Several thousand drivers and their dependants rely on a product that ultimately I’m totally responsible for. I take this responsibility extremely seriously and would never do anything might cause drivers to loose out or put them in danger. That said, I’m human and I have made mistakes, but just as long as I admit my fallibility and correct my errors quickly then I can’t do much more than that.

As for being ripped off, you should have heard the laughter when we read that. If half of your customers were half as bad as half of ours, then you wouldn’t half have a problem. We get ripped off for thousands each year by taxi companies that cry poverty but who’s owners drive top of the range custom plated BMWs! Who can’t pay because they’re out of the country again on yet another holiday.

So again I’ll just say be patient, I’m sure the gremlins will be ironed out and that given a bit of time you’ll look back and wonder why you never went this way sooner. I guarantee it!

Bill

In defence of Auriga I think all systems struggle with the transferring over of such databases when you use two completely different computer languages.

When we changed to Cordic we could have printed off our phone number list, with 10 years of unsavoury numbers stored on it. We decided that about 1 number a week popped up and the thought of spending hours and hours transferring them over was a waste of time.

Many numbers held for addresses were incorrect so we decided to start it again.

Certainly feel that your bosses have done the bare minimum to smooth the transfer though Cgull.

My biggest problem has been the despatcher who insists on running the system 'the auriga way' and moaning about it long and loud being crap. He is finally seeing the light.

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A member of the Hire or Reward Industry

Either that of a P45????

No he won't see a P45. He has been and will continue to be a brilliant despatcher.

Just he didn't start off with the right mindset. Couldn't understand why the zones were different etc.

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A member of the Hire or Reward Industry

I C.....Hmmm....a thumb over the head with the telphone book might help

still not that impressed with evocab.
i just cant get over how slow it is and how responsive it is not.
the old ariuga would let you push buttions very quickly in turn.
this one doesnt let you. it just does not react.
and the worse bit is it still lets cars pass each other ion the way to jobs.
no where as good as it should be.

The data unit has not changed. It is the same as it always was. You may feel it is 'slower' because of the more intelligent way it despatches (whether you agree with it being more intelligent or not).

If cars are being pulled past you to cover a job, you *MUST* tell the office - there is possible something wrong with the pulling script.

The rules with evocab are the same as they were with Sirius - if you've got an issue with something the system is doing - tell someone - nothing can be done if you don't.

I don't buy this 'slower because it is more intelligent' sales pitch ITK.

From what was explained to me, instead of making choices on what is waiting to be despatched at this instant it now seems to asses what is too be despatched in the next 15 seconds.

If it can plan a minute in front then why can't it plan an hour in front?

I might be misunderstanding this, but I have asked for it to be explained several times in the past.

For example, does it say 'we have a wheelchair job 10 miles away in 45 minutes (the call off for that area is 30 minutes). We have a job going that way waiting to be despatched now. Lets pull a WAV from the next zone to do it, so that he is on his way.'

My understanding is it won't. I believe that if the only WAV is in a zone with a job waiting that heads east. It will get the job despite the fact that you need it to be heading west in 5 minutes time.

I would hope there are parameters which say 'we need a WAV in 5 minutes so don't send it another job.' What I don't believe it can do is ensure that a WAV isn't sent so far away it can't make its next booking in time.

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A member of the Hire or Reward Industry

Tom Thumb - you are half way there with the way it despatches.

Auriga's DOS system despatches every second - this means that a job can be despatched to a vehicle inappropriately - imagine the job can be done by any car, is given to a 5 seater - then 5 seconds later, a 5 seater job comes in. Lots of juggling to get the normal job back so you can give the 5 seater job to the 5 seater.

Evocab uses a (default) 15 second despatch cycle. During these 15 seconds, the system is gathering more information - more vehicles going soon to clear, going free, more jobs coming up for despatch now etc, meaning it can base it's despatch decision on a longer period of time - hence - making it more intelligent.

15 seconds is the default - there is no reason why it could not be set to 30 seconds - the only problem with that would be that drivers would feel the system is going even slower - which it is, but it is making even better decisions.

The point regarding a job essentially having a variable despatch time based upon the vehicles around is a difficult one for any system to do. My understanding with it at the moment is that is uses the delay times for zones, based upon the companies opinion on how long it normally takes to cover the job. These delay times can be extended for specific vehicles, so you could, for example add an extra 5 minutes to the standard delay time for a 5 seater job - but of course, this is not what you mean.

What would be good (i agree ) would be for the system to know (for example) a car is dropping at the airport soon, if they hang around for x minutes, they can be automatically given the return. This sort of thing may be available at some point - I understand their new data units will show you jobcounts for jobs coming up in the future. Even though it means the driver would still have to look, then ask the office for the job, at least it should mean less running past other cars etc, when you were the most appropriate car just a few minutes ago!

Finally, trust me when I say I am not trying to give you the sales pitch. I am simply trying to give the facts as they are, and assist anyone with questions, queries or issues with the system a route to trying to sort it out - you will find many of my replies to comments have advised posters to speak to their office - as many of the issues can be resolved via them.

Happy Christmas everybody